Midnight
by StoryQuipster
Summary: He really should wake her up.


**Midnight**

* * *

He's back at his old house again.

He knows this because everything smells like mint and the air is cold but not frigid—it's the drafty kind of cold he likes, the kind that's brought on by his father's ice magic. He can see his most favorite chair in the corner and his snowboard, still fresh with snow, leaning against the wall near the fireplace. His mother used to always hate it whenever he brought it in and made wet puddles on the carpet.

His brows crease into a frown.

Where is his mother? And more importantly, how did he even get here?

He starts walking forward, fingers reaching out to touch the wood-paneled walls. Maybe he's killed END. Yes, that must be it. He's killed END, completed his mission. He doesn't remember the battle, doesn't remember the coppery smell of blood assaulting his nose, the lacerations tearing across his skin, the heaviness of the battle's aftermath. But he must've done it. He's home. With his parents. They're here. _He knows_. He's killed END and somehow, that brings his parents back, makes everything better—their lives must've been bartered in exchange for the demon's.

"Mom? Dad?" he calls out. The room suddenly becomes dimmer, the air colder. Despite himself, he shivers and exhales a cloud of frost.

There's a warm glow coming from the kitchen.

He walks towards it, steps tentative, chest tight with anticipation. The hair at the back of his neck is standing and there's a strange, trickling sensation in his gut. Something is wrong.

When he rounds the corner into the room, his muscles tense, ready to expand into a fighting stance and—

"Gray, you're up."

He blinks once.

"Mom?" he says.

His mother gives him a small smile. "How was your nap?"

"Nap?"

"Looks like someone's still a little groggy from sleep," his father jocundly says, mouth full. It's only then that Gray realizes that the table is full of food. His favorites actually; warm soup, hot potatoes and ham, steaming hot chocolate. "Sorry, champ. Tried to but we couldn't wait for you."

"You mean _you_ couldn't wait for Gray," his mother says as she gives Silver a pointed look. She turns to look at Gray, a wry smile on her lips. "Your father is the most impatient man in the planet."

"I was hungry," Silver defensively says.

"I-It's okay," Gray sputters, flummoxed. He takes a step forward. "I don't mind."

"Here Gray, have a seat. Luckily, I managed to keep your father from devouring all of the ham," Mika cheerfully says as she pulls a seat out.

"Stop making me sound like a pig," Silver complains.

"Really, mom. It's okay," Gray says, a warm feeling settling in his chest. Everything's okay. His parents are here. He's back at home. But something feels missing. No, not something. _Someone_.

"Would you rather have hot chocolate or apple cider?" his mom asks, snapping him back into focus.

Before he can reply, a loud, wailing roar trembles across their house, rattling the walls and windows. Gray stiffens; his throat constricting. He knows that sound. He'd know it from anywhere. It's—

"Deliora," his father hisses, and suddenly Gray is a child again, weak and helpless. He stands up, tries to remember everything he's learned from Ur, his fingers clenching into the position of his ice-make stance. But he can't seem to do anything, can't seem to stop the tremors that's expanding across his body.

"Gray, go!" Silver yells and before he can respond his father pushes him.

And then he's falling, falling against the snow and darkness, the wind whipping against his face. His face feels cold, chapped and his body buoyant, as if he had become weightless in the span of three seconds.

He lands in a bed of soot and snow.

"Gray!"

His eyes snap open, focusing on two blurry figures in front of him. "Ur? Lyon?"

"Listen to me, Gray. You have to run. Run and don't look back," Ur says, her voice frantic.

"What? What are you talking about—''

"Stop asking questions. Just leave this to us," Lyon interrupts in his usual cocky voice.

"Where's my mom? Dad?" he demands in a shaky voice.

Ur opens her mouth to respond but she is cut off by a wailing cry. Suddenly the ground fractures from beneath them and Lyon falls into the chasm, right into the jaws of Deliora. Gray is screaming, screaming Lyon's name but no sound is coming out of his lips. The demon suddenly rises from the crack, expanding, almost filling up the entire space.

Ur steps in front of him.

"Lyon..." Gray chokes.

Ur gives him a small smile. "Run."

And then she places one arm over the other and before he can stop her, a wall of ice is encasing her, expanding, surrounding Deliora. Her body starts freezing over, fracturing into tiny, little shards.

"Ur!" Gray cries out. No. She can't do it. She can't be doing it again. She can't do Iced Shell again—

Everything is suddenly still.

He's suddenly standing in nothing but darkness.

And then, he sees _her_. She's there, alive and well and not a block of ice encasing a demon. He runs towards her, chest heaving, his hand outstretched as he reaches out to her.

He stops.

She's not Ur. She only looks like her.

"Ultear?" Gray says.

Ultear smiles at him, doesn't say anything. Gray reaches out to touch her shoulder or to grasp her hand but before he can, her skin suddenly sags and wrinkles start appearing from the corners of her mouth. Her hair turns brittle, grey and her skin shrinks against her bones. It's like she's folding inwards into herself, slowly shriveling up.

"Gray..." she whispers. _"Help me."_

"No!" he screams, leaping forward to grab her. She disintegrates into dust before he can.

His eyes are hot and he knows that any minute now, he's going to start crying. His chest feels hollow and he thinks to himself that he's never felt grief as bad as this before. His entire body is trembling with despair—everything's gone all wrong, nothing can fix it, he can't do anything about it anymore

"Gray-sama?"

He looks up and sees her, eyes soft and wide, lips curled into a gentle smile.

And suddenly, everything is alright again. Calm washes over him, an overwhelming sense of peace settling in his chest.

"What's wrong?" she asks him as she kneels down to face him. She places a hand against his cheek.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong now," he mumbles as he leans into her touch. No, everything's still all wrong. But at least he still has her.

Suddenly, there's a hissing noise and he stiffens. All of the darkness surrounding them suddenly starts moving towards one corner, leaving an unsettling white in its wake, like the room is being drained of color. It's as if all of the blackness of where they are is being absorbed into one area, forming into a huge shifting, shapeless mass. He can't tell what it is but he can make out two horns protruding from the top.

END.

"Gray-sama."

He turns to look at Juvia. She's holding a hand out to him.

She gives him a huge smile, cocking her head slightly to the side. "Let's go and defeat END, yeah?"

"No. I won't let you," he says as he tries to step forward and block her path. "This is my fight."

"But we promised to do this together right?" she says, frowning.

"I never said—''

Suddenly, spikes of black start shooting out of the mass. Juvia pushes him out of the way and blocks the spikes with arcs of water. Gray struggles to stand up but his limbs won't work, almost as if he's paralyzed. The black mass is creeping towards Juvia, slowly lapping at her feet. She suddenly puts one arm over the other, in the formation of an x. His eyes widen. Why is she doing that pose? She can't. She's a water mage. She can't do Iced Shell. A glob of water expands from around her.

"Juvia..."

"Don't worry, Gray-sama," Juvia says, her form faltering into droplets of water drifting off into the air. "Juvia will take care of it..."

The inky, black mass swallows her whole.

* * *

"_Juvia_!" he screeches, sitting up. A thick film of sweat is covering his skin. His arms are clenched around his bedsheets. He blinks several times, trying to adjust to the darkness of his surroundings.

He's in his room. From his bed, he can hear the silence permeating across the entire cabin.

Juvia.

He gets off the bed, hurriedly rushing to her room. He needs to see her. Now. He needs to know for sure that she hasn't ended up like Ur or his parents or Ultear.

Gone forever. Dead or dying because of him.

* * *

Her door is unlocked again.

He grunts in annoyance. He's told her many times to always keep her door locked but she always seems to forget. They live a good distance away from the rest of the town, up a small hill where they could have ample training space. Hardly anyone ever comes up here and it's usually pretty deserted every evening, so he always worries that someone will try to rob them or murder them or whatever and help is too far off so nobody will know they're dead up until the next morning.

(What? He's been watching a lot of horror movies.)

He carefully opens the door by a crack and peeks through. Juvia's curled up against her bed, the blankets wrapped around her. Her chest is heaving up and down in slow, even breaths. He relaxes a little and takes a step back, feeling much calmer and a whole lot stupider.

Of course, she'd still be here. It's not like END is just going to suddenly come banging into their cabin to take her away. He's being irrational.

He still feels a bit frazzled though and he doesn't think that he'll be able to go back to sleep. It's been happening a lot lately, him having these weird nightmares. But the one he had tonight was the worst. He's not really sure but he thinks it's because Juvia and Lyon were actually present in this one. All of his other nightmares usually involved Ur or his parents but they weren't half as scary because you know, all three of them were already dead. And well, with Ultear, he's already accepted what she's done for him so it doesn't hurt as much anymore.

Honestly, he's just glad that it hasn't escalated to _everyone_ he cares about dying.

(Although he feels like Juvia dying was already as worse of a nightmare as it could possibly get.)

He thinks that it's because he's overworked. Or it's because it's getting closer to the anniversary of when Ur died. He doesn't really know.

Fuck, he needs a bottle of beer.

What he really wants is a smoke, but he's stopped for some time now. He needs to be healthier if he's going to defeat END and Juvia's told him that the smoke affects her body even more negatively than most people—it's got something to do with her water body or something. He quietly pads across the hallways as heads towards the kitchen and tries rooting for a beer in the refrigerator. He's just finished popping one open when he hears footsteps from behind him.

"Gray-sama?"

He turns to look at her, cringing at the thought that he's somehow woken her up. She's wearing a pair of pajamas that look too big on her. They're the really cute plaid ones that he likes so much, the ones where the sleeves flop over her hands.

"Juvia? What're you doing up this late at night? Did I wake you?" he gruffly asks her.

"No…Juvia just felt that something was wrong with Gray-sama—''

Of course. Her Gray-sama radar is never wrong.

"—so she got up to check on you but you weren't in your room. Are you okay?" she asks him, her eyes immediately focusing on the beer bottle in his hand.

"Oh no, I just…I just couldn't sleep, that's all," he mumbles as he tries to avoid her gaze.

Her gaze softens and immediately, he can tell that she's somehow figured out that he's lying but he doesn't want to talk anymore about it. He's not sure of how much she knows of all his recent late-evening nightmares but he does know that she's been aware for some time of his erratic sleeping habits. She hasn't asked him about it directly but she's been dropping hints and stuff, brewing him tea that's supposed "to calm his nerves." Still, this is really the first time, she's caught him being up. The last few times, he had just stayed in his room until he had fallen back to sleep.

"Maybe we should do something that will make you sleepy," Juvia suggests.

"No, it's okay. I don't want to take away from your sleep," Gray hastily says.

She shakes her head. "Juvia isn't sleepy. Maybe we can listen to some relaxing music. Or should Juvia brew some tea? Or oohh, Juvia can _massage_ Gray-sama!"

Her face turns read and she starts clutching at her cheeks as a dreamy look maps across her eyes.

"O-oi! I don't need a massage!" Gray protests.

"Are you sure? Because Juvia has really _great_ fingers," she enthusiastically says, completely oblivious to the fact that what she just said was so…sexually charged.

Or maybe it's just him.

Holy fuck, he's turning into a real pervert.

"No, I'm good," he mumbles, becoming more and more embarrassed.

Juvia lapses into a contemplative silence, as she taps her finger against her chin.

"Oh! Juvia knows! We should watch a movie!" she says. "Juvia just brought a new movie lacrima last week!"

"What movie is it?" he warily asks her.

She hastily says, "Don't worry! It's nothing too romantic! It's about this world where everyone gets timers that countdown to when they meet their soulmate and—''

"Timers? How does that even work? How can a machine tell who your soulmate it?"

"That doesn't matter Gray-sama!" Juvia impatiently says. "What matters is that it's _romantic_."

"Well…" He shifts in his place. "I guess if you're not sleepy—''

"Yes! Juvia isn't! And she's been wanting to see this movie with Gray-sama since she bought it!" she excitedly says as she grabs his wrist and starts dragging him towards the living room.

"You're not going to cry again, are you?" he asks her. Last time, she made him watch a movie about a girl who dies while giving birth and she wouldn't stop crying. He was extremely uncomfortable the whole time.

"She doesn't think this is a sad movie! Promise!" she cheerfully says as she pushes him on to the couch. "You go set everything up. Juvia will make popcorn!"

He watches as she goes off into the kitchen and it takes him several seconds before he realizes that she's somehow managed to take the beer bottle away from his hand. He makes an annoyed remark and yells something about wanting to finish that but she just replies with a small laugh that makes him smile. He finds the move lacrima and slots it into the player. Juvia comes back moments later with a bowl of popcorn and giddily settles into place next to him.

He plays the movie and the two of them watch in contented silence. It's really not as bad as he thought it would be, although he kind of gets the feeling that the movie is a lot more serious or sadder than Juvia thinks. Midway through though, he realizes that something's wrong. Juvia's not squealing or clutching at his arm whenever a particularly romantic scene happens.

He turns to look at her and finds that she's blearily blinking at the screen, mechanically shoving popcorn into her mouth.

He frowns. "You know…if you're sleepy, you can just tell me."

She stubbornly shakes her head. "No…Juvia isn't. Really, she wants to finish the movie."

"Juvia—''

"No, she's really not tired! Look! The girl's just gotten her timer," she says, trying to sound excited.

"Juvia, she got her timer ages ago."

"Oh, well. Maybe she'll meet her soulmate in the next scene," Juvia says as she sinks deeper against the couch.

"If you say so," Gray mumbles as he takes a handful of popcorn from Juvia's bowl.

The two of them watch the rest of the movie in silence. It starts getting interesting when the girl's timer gets activated and it takes him half a second to figure out that her soulmate is probably the guy her sister seems to have a thing with. Which really isn't that much of a plot twist but it's still a pretty big holy shit moment for him. He's just getting to the scene when the girl's timer goes off when he feels a slight pressure on his side. He turns to look and sees that Juvia's head is leaning against his chest and the bowl of popcorn is tipping sideways in her lap.

He stiffens, a little uncomfortable with the proximity.

So much for staying awake for the whole movie.

He really should wake her up or at least carry her back to her room. The position she's in can't be comfortable and she's sure to wake up with sore muscles in the morning. (And he can't have that because you know, they need to train.) Before he can, she snuggles up closer to him, curling against his side, her head dropping to his chest. He thickly swallows, trying hard not to think about how soft she feels against him. He carefully grasps her shoulder, meaning to shake her awake, but then, she yawns and drops her head to his lap. The bowl of popcorn clatters to the floor.

He really should wake her up.

(But he can't help but feel that, that's somehow like letting her go.)

Instinctively, he drapes an arm around her waist and draws her closer. He carefully flicks off a couple of stray popcorns on her hair before turning down the volume of the TV. He leans back against the couch, his muscles relaxing and a calm feeling settling in his chest. He kind of likes the feeling of her sleeping against him. For some reason, it makes him feel calmer.

Maybe it's because with his arm around her waist, he knows that she's always there. That she'll always be safe. That he won't somehow lose her.

He turns the TV off, leans against the couch and closes his eyes.

To hell with waking her up.

It's not like she's looks too uncomfortable anyway.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Before anything, can anyone guess who's fic I just gave a shoutout to? (Oh to hell with guesses, it's alluding to** muffin-dragon227**'s lovely mint pancakes fic in _So Fluffy_). Anyways, I got two request form tumblr. One was asking for a sequel to _Ribs_ while the other was asking for another gruvia cabin fic. I'm not exactly sure about the second but I assume that the anon wanted another fic that was in the same 'verse as _Ribs_. This is really a companion piece more than a sequel (hence why it's a separate fic). The reason why I didn't lump it with the other fic is mostly because I listed it as Gruvia w/Gajuvia brotp fic and I wanted it to still kind of center around Juvia and Gajeel's friendship (even though he doesn't even show up).

I'm actually surprised I managed to churn this out before the week ended (because I am horribly slow at finishing fics, especially if I'm writing them in the middle of the school year). I think it's because I'm desperate to put out all my headcanon-based fics before any new chapter josses them all hahahaha If I keep getting requests and popping out fics that are 5k and below, then I think I'm just going to expand this and make it a collection of fics (because I just realized that I can't just keep posting things as individual fics hehehehe)

Thank you for all your lovely reviews! They made me really happy :)) Please give me feedback if you have the time.


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